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Movies & TV

>>> Sonita

SONITA (Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami, Iran/Germany/Switzerland). 90 minutes. Rating: NNNNN


Look at this film and you’d swear it was written as a dramatic feature. It’s got an astonishing narrative and a charismatic star in the person of teenager Sonita Alizadeh.

We meet her in Iran, where she’s been living as an undocumented immigrant for several years. She’s determined to become a world-class rapper. Trouble is, rap is close to taboo in Iran, and it’s illegal for women to sing onstage.

This does nothing to stop Sonita, who makes connections and partnerships so that she can record her first hip-hop track.

In the meantime, her mother is trying to get her back to Afghanistan so that she can be sold into marriage. Her son needs the money so he can buy his own bride.

Director Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami’s camera follows Sonita through her journey, capturing candid conversations between Sonita and her mother and bringing to life the fundamental conflict between a determined young woman and the tribal rules she opposes. And the suspense is intense.

In the middle of all this, Maghami manages to inject the essential issue of the role of the documentarian. Sonita needs money to buy time to remain in Iran. Should Maghami abandon her observer role and give it to her?

Eventually Sonita manages to film a video of her song Brides For Sale – an indictment of violence against women and forced marriage – which in just a few days gets 10,000 hits on YouTube

That number’s now gone up to nearly half a million. No surprise – it’s electrifying. So is this pic. 

Apr 30, 6:30 pm, Isabel Bader May 1, 4 pm, TIFF 1 May 6, 3:45 pm, TIFF 1

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